Page:The Early Indian Wars of Oregon.djvu/259

 r 7, 1848.

displayed by the non-appearance in the autumn of the long-looked for regiment of mounted riflemen. A hope of this promised relief from the dangers which threatened him, had undoubtedly, they believed, led Dr. Whitman into the attitude of seeming to defy the Cayuses, even be fore the sickness broke out which had exasperated them still further, and so became instead of a protection a motive for his death. Until it was well into the winter, every express from Fort Hall brought the message, "No news yet of any troops on the road." Spring came, and still no news. Summer wore away in keeping the war in the Indian country. The immigration arrived with the discouraging intelligence that the Oregon regiment had been ordered to Mexico, and nothing was known of its future destination. The murderers were still at large, but like Cain of old, had been driven into strange lands, and the places that had known them knew them no more.

Then the colonists drew a long breath, and hearing of the gold fields of the Sacramento valley, every ragged soldier who could take a share in an ox team and wagon load of provisions, set off to conquer fortune. Many died, worn out by the privations of soldiering and mining life, but the majority returned with more or less of the precious dust, stored up in tin cans, pickle bottles, or whatever ves sel they could find that would hold fast the elusive atoms. Those that remained harvested the fields, and sold the crops for a good price in cash. The legislature of 1848- 1849 passed a coinage act, under which about fifty thou sand dollars were minted, which helped to relieve the embarrassment in making exchanges until such time as the United States began the coinage of gold in San Francisco.

In the meantime, the messenger dispatched to Washing ton with memorials, and an account of the Waiilatpu tragedy, had been able to stir congress to definite action in the matter of establishing a territorial government over Oregon, which was to all intents and purposes already a